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Authors: Uncle John’s
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wrong? The people they polled did not represent a cross-section of the American electorate. In 1936 America was deep into the Great Depression. People struggled to feed and clothe themselves, and one of thecasualties was magazines. Only the wealthy could afford a subscription to a magazine such as The Literary Digest. TLD included its own readers in its poll, but the bulk of survey respondents came from two other groups: owners of cars and telephones, both of which were exorbitantly expensive and also available only to the wealthy, and heavily Landon-favoring, voters of 1936.
The poll cast so much doubt on The Literary Digest ’s credibility that it directly led to the magazine’s end. Less than two years later, it was bought out by a competitor, Review of Reviews . That magazine went out of print less than a year later.
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SILENCED MARINER
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N ASA’s first mission to study the inner solar system was the Mariner Program, 10 unmanned space probes that visited Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Mariner 1 , launched on July 22, 1962, was supposed to be a three-and-a-half-month flyby of Venus to gather information about its atmosphere.
Just after liftoff, the rocket carrying Mariner 1 veered off course when a computer misunderstood the rocket’s trajectory. A ground-based radar system had failed to account for the “radio echo,” the time it takes a signal to reach its target and return to the ground. That 43-millisecond miscalculation meant that instead of going toward Venus, Mariner boomeranged back to Earth.
Fearing the rocket might crash into a populated area, mission control sent a self-destruct command to the probe. Less than five minutes after liftoff, Mariner 1 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. The mistaken course correction came from a line of code transcribed by a programmer working from a handwritten formula. Several theories exist about the specific mistake, but NASA’s explanation is that the programmer missed a single hyphen. That hyphen cost $18.5 million.
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THREE SPORTS GAFFES
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F ETCH!
Fewer than 300 pitchers have ever struck out more than 1,000 batters in the entire history of professional baseball. Atlanta Braves pitcher Charlie Leibrandt made it to that number in 1992. After he struck out his 1,000th batter in a game against the San Francisco Giants, the catcher paused the game and handed Leibrandt the milestone ball, which he threw into the Braves dugout for safekeeping. The problem: neither the catcher nor Leibrandt had called time-out or asked for a new ball, meaning the ball he’d thrown into the dugout was still technically in play. The runner on first realized it at about the same time as Leibrandt, so while he hustled to the dugout to retrieve the ball, the runner stole second base.
THE SLOW STEAL
The 1926 World Series came down to a decisive seventh game between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees came up to bat in the ninth inning, with the Cardinals up 3–2, and two outs. With a full count, Babe Ruth earned a walk—the tying run. Power hitter Bob Meusel came up to bat, and if he got a hit, Ruth would score. Instead, Ruth, well known for being heavyset and slow, and successful at base stealing only 50 percent of the time, decided to steal secondbase on the first pitch. Cardinals catcher Bob O’Farrell easily threw him out. Game over, series over, Cardinals win.
BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
The University of North Carolina was heavily favored to win the 1993 NCAA college basketball tournament, but the big story was the University of Michigan’s “Fab Five” lineup of freshmen and sophomore starters who had made it all the way to the final. Among the five were future NBA superstars Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, and Chris Webber, an All-American that year. In the final game, North Carolina led 73–71 with just 19 seconds left. North Carolina’s Pat Sullivan missed a free throw, and Webber quickly rebounded it and began to take it up the court.
Just past
The poll cast so much doubt on The Literary Digest ’s credibility that it directly led to the magazine’s end. Less than two years later, it was bought out by a competitor, Review of Reviews . That magazine went out of print less than a year later.
----
SILENCED MARINER
----
N ASA’s first mission to study the inner solar system was the Mariner Program, 10 unmanned space probes that visited Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Mariner 1 , launched on July 22, 1962, was supposed to be a three-and-a-half-month flyby of Venus to gather information about its atmosphere.
Just after liftoff, the rocket carrying Mariner 1 veered off course when a computer misunderstood the rocket’s trajectory. A ground-based radar system had failed to account for the “radio echo,” the time it takes a signal to reach its target and return to the ground. That 43-millisecond miscalculation meant that instead of going toward Venus, Mariner boomeranged back to Earth.
Fearing the rocket might crash into a populated area, mission control sent a self-destruct command to the probe. Less than five minutes after liftoff, Mariner 1 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. The mistaken course correction came from a line of code transcribed by a programmer working from a handwritten formula. Several theories exist about the specific mistake, but NASA’s explanation is that the programmer missed a single hyphen. That hyphen cost $18.5 million.
----
THREE SPORTS GAFFES
----
F ETCH!
Fewer than 300 pitchers have ever struck out more than 1,000 batters in the entire history of professional baseball. Atlanta Braves pitcher Charlie Leibrandt made it to that number in 1992. After he struck out his 1,000th batter in a game against the San Francisco Giants, the catcher paused the game and handed Leibrandt the milestone ball, which he threw into the Braves dugout for safekeeping. The problem: neither the catcher nor Leibrandt had called time-out or asked for a new ball, meaning the ball he’d thrown into the dugout was still technically in play. The runner on first realized it at about the same time as Leibrandt, so while he hustled to the dugout to retrieve the ball, the runner stole second base.
THE SLOW STEAL
The 1926 World Series came down to a decisive seventh game between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees came up to bat in the ninth inning, with the Cardinals up 3–2, and two outs. With a full count, Babe Ruth earned a walk—the tying run. Power hitter Bob Meusel came up to bat, and if he got a hit, Ruth would score. Instead, Ruth, well known for being heavyset and slow, and successful at base stealing only 50 percent of the time, decided to steal secondbase on the first pitch. Cardinals catcher Bob O’Farrell easily threw him out. Game over, series over, Cardinals win.
BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
The University of North Carolina was heavily favored to win the 1993 NCAA college basketball tournament, but the big story was the University of Michigan’s “Fab Five” lineup of freshmen and sophomore starters who had made it all the way to the final. Among the five were future NBA superstars Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, and Chris Webber, an All-American that year. In the final game, North Carolina led 73–71 with just 19 seconds left. North Carolina’s Pat Sullivan missed a free throw, and Webber quickly rebounded it and began to take it up the court.
Just past
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